Drop City by T.C. Boyle, or any book of his?

Has anyone read this book? If you haven't, you should. The following is my review at the time I read it. I still recall this as one of my favorite works of fiction. I have since collected other books by him but haven't yet read them. I'm curious to know your thoughts on it, if you've read it. If you haven't, then you should check it out.

August 2, 2005

I've invested in this book for the last 3 weeks and I really started to succumb to their hopes and fears...to feel what they feel and isn't that the purpose of a truly amazing book?

Drop City, by T.C. Boyle is one of the best books I've read in the last year. I came across it randomly while cruising the library shelves and it became it's own animal, a plot line I could not take my mind off of, despite being in the front row of a rock and roll show or eating the best Mediterranean food in Chicago.

The characters roll into Drop City, California from various places throughout the country. They meet up, most of them catch word of it or by chance get a very hip ride one night that takes them there. In this sunny place it never rains and there is so much happiness, both pure and artificial, to be a part of. They talk about living off the land and being brothers and sisters, they have meetings about grocery and supply runs, holidays that lead them into communal chaos laced with pleasure. They run into a few difficult situations but the euphoric world of ideals is floating over their heads until the Law intervenes, citing building codes that were ignored and land ownership issues that went unresolved.

Soon the group realizes the California Dream is over. Norm, their guru and father, has a plan...an Uncle that left him some land in Alaska, the last true Wilderness. Their last real chance to live off of the land, without hassles or laws or anybody to interrupt their collective lives, is staring them in the face.

It is then that things become Things and brothers and sisters become Allies and nobody can quite fathom what Alaska really entails, what treacherous situations await them. No picture or magazine article can do it justice - the immense silent North welcoming them, or not. The end of the road, top of the world place where only the most dedicated family can muster the strength to stay. They find an old school bus and head on up with dreams in their dreadlocks and determination balancing itself carefully on their shoulders.

This book is loaded with inspiring quotes and prose that could give you chills on an August night. This writer is as genius as King, as close to nature as Thoreau, and more realistic than both of them put together. He doesn't shy away from what this life with these people would really be like. He has a way of exposing the dark sides that everyone hides within the depths of their own skin. He inserts perfectly placed details, it will take no effort to pay the attention that this story demands.

This is not the fluffy "be sure to wear flowers in your hair" book about communes. This is to put you on the inside of an unforgiving country that went beyond those little towns in California. These people could be in so many centuries, the place so wild, the people so full of hope for a new beginning and put up against challenges that will prove how serious they are. It's a book about pioneers, the way you would do things if you really had a choice, the things you might compromise if you had a chance to make a place your own. It has the flavor of the seventies but there is also a timelessness that invokes the connection of all settlers that have come before them. These people are tested on the road and on their newfound homestead, you'll want to know who's got it in them, who can make it through a night that lasts an entire winter.